http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/08/while-visiting-city-at-the-center-of-the-va-scandal-obama-blows-off-the-va/While visiting city at the center of the VA scandal, Obama blows off the VA
POSTED AT 6:41 PM ON JANUARY 8, 2015 BY NOAH ROTHMAN
Since the scandal involving the systematic mistreatment of veterans and the subsequent cover-up of wrongdoing on the part of Veterans Affairs administrators broke in the spring of 2014, President Barack Obama has stayed far away from the city where the scandal first broke. On Thursday, Obama traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, for the first time since that scandal engulfed his administration. But even while visiting the city where the controversy that robbed him of his longtime veterans affairs secretary began, Obama managed to maintain a healthy remove from both local veterans and their scandalous medical facility.
The president appeared in Phoenix alongside former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her husband astronaut Mark Kelly, and HUD Sec. Julian Castro on Thursday where he talked up the steady progress of the economic recovery.
“I know there’s some folks in Washington that wish I’d be in space for a year,” Obama said while standing beside Kelly’s astronaut brother, Scott Kelly. “But I’m still around.”
But for the Phoenix’s vets, Obama might as well have been in low Earth orbit.
“The high school where Obama held the event was just a short distance down the road from the Carl Hayden VA medical center,” Politico reported.
“He won’t be far from the Phoenix VA facility, the epicenter of the VA scandal, where dozens of veterans died while waiting for basic care,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in Washington shortly before the event. “We call on the president to offer a long-term vision for reforming the systemic problems at the VA. We’ve yet to see it.”
Thursday, Obama’s motorcade passed sped down 7th Street, right by the medical center.
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.@RepJeffMiller on POTUS’ PHX VA Drive-By: "I hope he at least slowed down." Photo via @william_pitts
2:03 PM - 8 Jan 2015
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The president's limo drives past the Phoenix VA as veterans watch. He did not stop or mention the VA today. @12News
11:45 AM - 8 Jan 2015
Obama’s snubbing is not an oversight on his or his staff’s part. The president was asked by both Republican lawmakers and the Concerned Veterans of America to display some interest in the maltreatment of America’s vets – an issue which Obama adopted as a cause while serving as senator and during his 2008 campaign for the presidency.
“If President Obama wanted to get the ground truth—and send a signal of strong leadership—he would take the time to visit the Phoenix VA hospital during his forthcoming trip to that neighborhood,” said CVA Chief Executive Officer Pete Hegseth.
When asked on Tuesday why the president would decline to make an official visit to the scandal-plagued VA hospital, White House Press Sec. Josh Earnest declined to specify. Instead, he reminded reporters of the reforms to the system that the White House has implemented since the scandal broke (via The Hill).
“There have been substantial operational reforms in place that are ensuring that the needs of the veterans in Phoenix are being better met by the medical facility there,” Earnest said.
“So we’re pleased with the pace of reforms that have been put in place. … It’s clear that there is more that needs to be done not just in Phoenix but at medical facilities all across the country,” he added.
A senior administration official underscored those reform efforts Thursday, saying the Phoenix VA Health Care System had increased its staffing by more than 300 employees since June and that wait times had been cut by 30 percent.
“VA medical centers have increased access to care inside and outside of VA, added more clinic hours and work days, deployed mobile medical units, and shared their best practices from VA’s high-performing facilities throughout the organization,” the official said.
It’s only honest to concede that the symbolism of a presidential visit to the VA facility in Phoenix is of substantially less value than reforms to that moribund administration. The decision not to make the trip is, however, an indication that Obama remains as concerned with politics as ever.
It would not have changed lives, nor is it a substitute for serious reforms, but it would have been a nice gesture for the president to drop by Carl Hayden medical center if even for just a few minutes. Unfortunately, Obama couldn’t find it in his schedule.
